Fort Worth weekly gazette. [volume] (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1887-01-07
: lHE FLYING YEARS.
ght and Wrong Way of Measur-
Ting Earthly Existence--Toward
What Destiny are You Tending?
In This World We Key Up the Harp OF
a Rapture, or Forge the Chain OF a
Bondage-Duties We Owe.
We Should Measure Life by the Amount
of Good we can do-The Only Bright
View of Life and Death.
THE TABERNACLE SERMON.

THE TABERNACLE SERMON.
Special to the Gazette.
BROOKLYN, II. Y, Jan. 2.-Thls morn
ing at the tabernacle the Rev. 7. Dewitt
Talmage, D. D., expounded some passa-
ges of scripture concerning the longevity
of the patriarchs. He gave out the hymn
beginning:
My days are gliding swiftly by,
And l. a pilgrim ST anger,
Would not detain them as they fly,
Those hours of toll and danger
His text was Genesis Xviii, 8: Chow
old art thou?" The preacher said:
The Egyptian capital was the focus OF
the worlds wealth. In ships and barges,
there had been brought to 1t
from India frankincense, and
cinnamon, and ivory, and diamonds;
from the North, marble and iron; from
Syria, purple and silk; from Greece, some
of the finest horses of the world, ana
some of the most brilliant chariots; ana
from all the earth that which could pest
please the eye, and charm the ear, ana
CRAFTY the taste There were temples
afame with red sandstone, entered by
I the gateways that were guarded by pillars
I bewildering with hieroglyphics, and
! wound with brazen serpents, and adorned
with winged creatuTes-their eyes, and
beaks, and pinions glittering with prec-
ions stones. There were marble columns
blooming into white flower beds; there
were stone pillars at the top bursting
into the shape of the lotus when in full
bloom. Along the avenues, lined with
sphinx, and fame, and obelisk, there were
princes who came in gorgeously uphol-
stored palanquin, carried by servants IN
scarlet, or elsewhere drawn by vehicles,
the snow white horses, golden-bitted, and
six abreast
DASHING AT FULL RUN.
There were fountains from stone
Wreathei vases climbing the ladders OF the
light. You would heav q bolt shove. and
door of brass would open like fla q OF
the sun. The surrounding gardens were
Saturated with odors that mnu ted the
terrace, and dripped from the aruors,
and burned their incense il the Egyptian
noon. On floors of mosaic the glories Of
Pharoah were spelled out in letters OF
porphyry, beryl and fl me. There were
ornaments twisted from the wood OF
tamarisk, embossed with silver breaking
into foam. There were foOt-stoolS made |
out of a single precious stone. There !
were beds fashioned out of crouched
lion in bronze. There were chairs spot
ted with the sleek hides of leopsrds.
There were sofas footed with the claws of
wild beasts, and armed with the 6eaks OF |
\ birds. As you stand on the level besch |
of the sea on summer day, and look |
either way, and there are miles Of break |
ers, white with the ocean foam, d9sblng
|shoreward; so it seemed as If the sea of
the worlds pomp and wealth in the
Egyptian capitol for miles and miles flung
Itself up into white breakers OF marble
emple, mausoleum, and o0elisk.
1t was to this capitol and the palace OF
Pharaoh that J4cob, the plain shepherd,
Ycame to meet his son Joseph, who had
pecom9 prime minister in the royal apart
Paaroah and Jacob meet dignity
and rustic-ty, the gracetulness of the
court and the PLAIN manners OF the field,
The king wanting to make the old country
man at ease, and seeing how white his
beard is and how feeble his step, looks
Familiarity into his face, and says to the
k@ed man: "How old art thOu?"
Night before last the gate of eternity
opened to let in, amid the great thrOng Of
departed centuries. the soul Of the dying
year. Under the twelfth stroke of the
brazen hammer of the city clock, the
patriarch fell dead, and the stars
of the night were the funeral torches. IL
is most fortunate that on this road Of life
there are so many milestones on which
we can read just how fast we are going
toward the journeys end. | feel that il
is not an Incorporates question that |
ask to-day, when look into your faces,
and say, as Pharaoh did to Jacob, the
patriarch:
"FOW OLDD ART THOU?"
CIV al or other
subject, lie about their ages, SO that l do ,
not solicit from you any literal response
to the question | nave asked would
put no one under temptation; but l
simply want, this morning, to see by }
what rod it is we are measuring our ,
earthly existence. There is right way :
and a wrong way of measuring q door, or q,
a wall, or an arch, or a tower, and SC :
there is a right way and wrong way Of ,
measuring our earthly existence. Il is ,
with reference to this higher meaning ,,
that | confront you this morning with :
the stupendous question of the text, 3
and ask How old ait thoui"
There are many who estimate their life ,
by mere worldly qualification. When !
Lord Dundas was wished q happy New :
Year, he said: alt will have to be hap {
pier yesr than the past, for hadn't one :
happy Ill al InC lHVINC ilcHtAc
that have gone" But that has not been ,
the experience of most of US. We have $
found that though the world is blasted ;
with sin, it is very bright and beautiful :
place to reside in. We have had Joys in :
Vulnerable. There is no hostility between !
the Gospel and the merriments and the =
festivities of life. do not think that we !
fully enough appreciate the worldly {
pleasures God gives us. When you re- !,
count your enjoyments, you do not go :
far enough back. Why do you not go :
back to the time when you were an infant G
in your mothers arms, looking up :
into the heaven of her smile; to +
those days when you filed the house with :
the uproar of boisterous merriment; when !
you shouted as you pitched the bail on q
the playground; when, on the cold, sharp, 7
winter night, muffled up, on skates you r
shot out over the resoundtng ice OF the
pond? Have you forgotten .
ALL THOSE GOOD DAYS r
that the Lord gave you? Were you never Y
a boy? Were you never girl? Between f
those times and this how many mer- .
cies. how mauv kindnesses the Lord has y
bestowed upon you. How many Joys +
have bresthed up to you from the flow
ers, and shone down to you from the
stars. and chanted TO you with the voice
of soaring bird and tumbling cascade and l
booming sea, and thunders that with bay II
onets of fire charged down the mountain C
side. JOY! JOY! JOY! If there is any Il
one who has right to the enjoyments of n
the world it is the Christian, for God has Ii
given him lease to everything in the n
promise: "All are yours" But have to b
tell you that m2n who estimates his life h
on earth by mere worldly qualifications is m
a most unwise man. Our life is not to be h
q paIne of chess. 1t is not danCe in d